Pick Top Stocks For 2019, Best Stocks For 2019

Tag Archives: PFE

Investing can be a very stressful thing if you pick the wrong stocks. For low-risk investors, that means you need to step back and be more selective when researching stocks for your portfolio. A good starting point is to pick dividend-paying stocks like following. That said, there’s more to like about this low-risk trio than just the income they produce. Here’s why these are three great stocks for low-risk investors.

Top Casino Stocks To Own For 2019: Novavax, Inc.(NVAX)

Novavax’s share price was below $1 just 12 months ago. Since then, though, the biotech stock has soared 68%. And the gains were even higher, but Novavax conducted a stock offering in Aprilto raise additional cash. This caused its share price to pull back from the high levels reached earlier this year.

There are two reasons behind investors’ excitement over Novavax. One is the company’s lead pipeline candidate, a vaccine for the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Novavax is evaluating the vaccine in a phase 3 clinical study for maternal immunization of infants. Interim results from this study are expected in the first quarter of 2019. If all goes well, the company could submit the RSV vaccine for regulatory approval in the U.S. and in Europe by early 2020.

The second reason for Novavax’s great stock performance is its nanoparticle-based influenza vaccine NanoFlu. Novavax announced highly encouraging results from a phase 1 study of the vaccine on Feb. 28, 2018. The company expects to advance NanoFlu to phase 2 testing in the third quarter of this year.

Novavax’s opportunities are big if the company achieves success with either of these vaccines. RSV is the most common cause of lower respiratory tract infections in infants and young children worldwide and is the top cause of hospitalization of infants. But there’s no approved vaccine at this point. The annual market for flu vaccines in the U.S., Japan, and leading European countries is projected to reach $5.3 billion by 2025 — a 65% jump over a 10-year period.

Top Casino Stocks To Own For 2019: Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC)

As of this writing, Howard Hughes Corporation is my single largest stock investment. And, it is unlike any other real-estate stock I own, or even write about. While there is obviously more to Howard Hughes’ business model than I can discuss in a paragraph or two, here’s the simplified version.

Howard Hughes isn’t a real-estate investment trust. The company’s primary business consists of master-planned communities, or MPCs, which are essentially large plots of land that are developed into extensive communities with lots of amenities.

Here’s how it works. Howard Hughes Corporation sells land in its MPCs to homebuilders, who construct residential neighborhoods. This creates demand for properties such as office buildings, retail stores, etc., which Howard Hughes builds and uses to generate rental income. The addition of these amenities makes the remaining residential land more valuable, so the company sells more land to homebuilders at a higher price. And the cycle repeats…

This is why Howard Hughes isn’t structured as a REIT. The company feels that its business model will produce far superior returns for shareholders if all profits are reinvested back into the business to create more value-adding assets. Howard Hughes’ management has some pretty big plans for the company’s existing MPCs, as well as for some other assets like a Chicago office high-rise, so I’m extremely excited to see what the coming decades have in store for the companies.

Top Casino Stocks To Own For 2019: Boston Omaha Corporation(BOMN)

All told, Boston Omaha is still very early in its life as a public company — its initial public offering was in June 2017 — and not yet profitable. Yet Rozek and Peterson are currently building the infrastructure to support a far larger business, and as the company gains scale, sizable profits are likely to follow. Additionally, with a market cap of just $400 million, Boston Omaha will find it much easier to identify needle-moving investments than the massive, $500 billion Berkshire Hathaway. Thus, unlike Berkshire itself, this baby-sized version of Berkshire can look to nearly any area of the market to deploy its $90 million in cash reserves as it seeks to create value for its investors in the years ahead.

Better still, Boston Omaha’s shares can currently be had for around 2 times book value — a fair price to pay for a business that could potentially compound its shareholders’ wealth for decades to come.

Top Casino Stocks To Own For 2019: Pfizer, Inc.(PFE)

Despite being one of the world’s best-known names in its sector, Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) shares aren’t always in a long-term uptrend. You’ll recall in the early 2000’s as it was falling off the proverbial patent cliff, Pfizer was downright painful to own.

Things have been different since 2009 though. While PFE has not been without sizeable swings, all the major highs have been higher than the prior peak, and all the major lows have been better than the previous lows. The stock’s resiliency has allowed it to hammer out an average annual gain of 13% for the prior eight years.

The underlying results are likely to keep pushing the stock forward too. Its current best-selling drug, pneumonia vaccine Prevnar 13, still has some patent life left. And its all-star neurological-pain drug Lyrica — which generated $1.1 billion in sales during the last quarter of 2017 — got a partial patent extension late last year when a controlled-release version was unveiled.

In the meantime, late-stage pipeline drugs like Bavencio (or avelumab) and Ibrance (palbociclib), both for the treatment of several forms of cancer, show tremendous potential.

Investing in small-cap stocks isn’t for the faint of heart. Many are attracted to smaller companies because of the potential for enormous gains: If a $1 billion company becomes a $2 billion company, your investment has doubled. In theory, that seems like a much easier hurdle to jump than a $100 billion company becoming a $200 billion company.

But in practice small-cap investing can be fraught with risks, too. Smaller companies don’t have the resources that bigger ones do, and can be crushed if they go head-to-head. Smaller-cap companies that are considered "hot stocks" often have pricey valuations as well.

The stock that I’m introducing this month — and buying for my own portfolio — is no exception: It trades for over 100 times earnings, and 100 times free cash flow.

And yet, I think investors looking to allocate money to smaller companies should consider putting their own cash behind these stocks. When Motley Fool trading rules allow, I’ll be doing just that. Here’s why.

Best Low Price Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Opko Health Inc(OPK)

Opko Health didn’t see its stock pop as much as ARMO BioSciences, but the biotech did enjoy a big gain of 42% this week. The catalyst for Opko was the company’s better-than-expected first-quarter results announced on Tuesday.

Wall Street analysts expected Opko to report Q1 revenue of nearly $237 million. The company reported revenue of close to $255 million. But while that figure beat what analysts projected, it came in right in line with what Opko’s expectations.

The best news from Opko’s quarterly update for investors was that chronic kidney disease drug Rayaldee appears to be picking up momentum. Opko stated that Q1 total prescriptions for the drug jumped 731% year over year and were 38% higher than the fourth quarter of 2017. The company also expects that its laboratory diagnostic business, Bio-Reference Laboratories, will see improvement this year.

Best Low Price Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Dorchester Minerals, L.P.(DMLP)

Dorchester Minerals LP (NASDAQ:DMLP) is an intriguing play but also among the highest-risk investments on this list. Dorchester owns royalties and NPIs (net profits interests) in several hundred properties across 25 U.S. states. From a fundamental screen, DMLP looks attractive, with a 7.4% dividend yield and a little bit of net cash (along with no debt).

But because DMLP’s distributions are coming from royalties, those distributions can be exceedingly volatile. As the shale bubble burst, for instance, DMLP’s quarterly distribution dropped from $0.48578 to $0.16743 in just six months. Given that the royalties are based both on price and on the drilling on its land, there’s a huge reliance on crude oil prices – and a large risk if those prices drop, as seen in 2015-2016.

That said, for those investors bullish on oil and gas, DMLP is an intriguing play. Unlike a lot of royalty trusts, DMLP doesn’t have a set date for liquidation. In fact, it can use its shares to actually acquire more royalties and NPIs, creating some level of growth (albeit with dilution).

Again, this is a risky play – and one that needs higher crude prices to move higher. Investors uncomfortable with that risk should look to plays like Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) or Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), whose downstream operations provide an internal hedge.

For investors bullish on crude and natural gas, however, DMLP is an interesting direct play – and, for now anyway, a nice source of income.

Best Low Price Stocks To Invest In Right Now: FireEye, Inc.(FEYE)

Another security play worth a look is one-time momentum darling FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE). Shares are still roughly 70% below their peak of $80, immediately after a late 2013 IPO, but that just means early investors were overenthusiastic and current investors are too pessimistic.

That adds up to a big opportunity for those who buy now and plot a potential tripler in FEYE.

Amid constant hacking concerns for corporate America and the U.S. government, cybersecurity will be a hot topic for some time. And hot topics always lead to big M&A targets, particularly among private equity firms. With a valuation that’s around $3 billion, this is a pretty digestible play for the big boys out there like Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) that have a focus on security software these days.

Private equity is sitting on record cash right now, and FireEye has constantly been mentioned by the big players in the space.

FEYE could easily be worth at least $30 a share when you bake in a buyout premium. But even if acquisition rumors don’t bear out in the short-term, FireEye is making big strides to prove its standalone power. The company admittedly is not yet profitable. But it has a nice cash cushion and the consensus estimate for fiscal 2018 earnings is a one penny loss – so just a meager surprise could move this stock out of the red and into the green.

If an upside surprise happens, FEYE could break out. That makes this a higher-risk but high-reward investment in the tech sector.

Best Low Price Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Pfizer, Inc.(PFE)

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) too has a pleasing earnings profile with the company having consistently outpaced expectations in all the last four quarters with an average beat of 4.97%.

The consensus mark for first-quarter bottom line is pegged at 73 cents per share. Pfizer is scheduled to release financial figures on May 1.It looks perfectly poised to repeat this winning streak this time around as well. This New York-based player is Zacks #2 Ranked and has an Earnings ESP of +2.62%.

The consensus mark for first-quarter bottom line is pegged at 73 cents per share.

Best Low Price Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Cigna Corporation(CI)

Health insurer Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI) beat Q1 2018 earnings by 21% — its EPS excluding one-time items was $4.11 compared to the $3.39 consensus — prompting the company to up its EPS outlook for 2018 to $13.05 a share at the midpoint from its previous guidance of $12.65.

On the horizon, Cigna’s working on acquiring pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts Holding Co (NASDAQ:ESRX) for $52 billion; investors are concerned the deal won’t get approval from anti-trust regulators.

Cigna CEO David Cordani believes the acquisition will help it cut medical costs for its customers. In 2017, medical costs rose by 3%. It expects those costs could rise by as much as 5% in 2018. It would like to get medical cost increases down to CPI inflation.

In the first quarter, membership in its health care plans increased by 3%. It now has 16.2 million members. With revenues rising almost double digits with healthy increases in earnings, with or without Express Scripts, I see Cigna doing just fine.

Two key goals in retirement are to generate safe income and preserve capital. No one wants to outlive their nest egg.

Dividend-paying stocks are a popular asset class used to generate predictable, growing income. However, unlike the interest income paid by government-backed Treasury bonds, a common stock dividend can be far more discretionary in nature. When times get tough, a business will typically opt to reduce its dividend before jeopardizing its ability to meet its debt obligations, preserve its credit rating or invest in its long-term growth projects.

Unfortunately, a number of businesses are facing the tough decision to reduce their dividend at any one moment.

To alert investors of stocks that have the highest risk of reducing their current dividend in the future, Simply Safe Dividends created a Dividend Safety Score system that analyzes a company’s payout ratios, debt levels, recession performance, cash flow generation, recent earnings performance, dividend longevity and more.

Dividend Safety Scores are available for thousands of stocks, and scores range from 0 to 100. A score of 50 represents a borderline safe payout, but conservative investors are best off sticking with companies that score over 60 for Dividend Safety.

Investors can learn more about Dividend Safety Scores and view their real-time track record here(since inception they have flagged 99% of dividend cuts in advance).

I used Dividend Safety Scores to identify seven companies that have either recently cut their dividend and remain in trouble, or that could be facing a dividend cut in the near future. Owning companies like these can hurt a conservative retirement portfolio.

Top Bank Stocks To Watch Right Now: Pfizer, Inc.(PFE)

Investors have been waiting for Pfizer’s new drugs to finally offset declining demand for Lipitor, and this could be the year in which their patience is rewarded.

Pfizer finished 2017 with solid momentum that includes a return to organic growth and full-year EPS of $2.65, up 11% from 2016. The company’s forecast for 2018 is for revenue growth of 4% and EPS growth that matches last year’s 11% improvement. If it can hit those targets, it will be the first year of non-organic revenue growth at the company since Lipitor lost patent protection in 2011.

Driving the company’s improving outlook is a slate of important drugs, including the breast cancer drug Ibrance, the autoimmune-disease drug Xeljanz, the prostate cancer drug Xtandi, and the anticoagulant, Eliquis. In 2017, increasing demand for those drugs resulted in an 8% increase in sales at Pfizer’s innovative-health segment.

A return to growth would be great news for income investors because Pfizer already yields a market-beating 3.8%. If its sales growth accelerates, then operating leverage will give it additional wiggle room to boost its dividend payout.

Top Bank Stocks To Watch Right Now: Enbridge Inc(ENB)

Canadian energy infrastructure giant Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) has lost nearly a quarter of its value over the past year, and currently sells for just nine times cash flow, well below the peer group average of nearly 12 times 2018 cash flow. That sell-off also pushed its fast-growing dividend up to a 6.7% yield, which is the highest it has been since the early 1990’s.

The plunge doesn’t make much sense because Enbridge recently completed a needle-moving merger and has a massive backlog of expansion projects underway. These growth initiatives should enable the company to grow cash flow per share at a 10% annual pace through 2020, which positions it to raise its payout at a similar rate. That combination of a high current yield that Enbridge expects to grow at a high rate could fuel top-tier total returns for investors in the coming years as its valuation reverts closer to the peer group average.

Top Bank Stocks To Watch Right Now: Apple Inc.(AAPL)

Some investors claim that Apple’s high-growth days are over. Yet the tech giant posted accelerating double-digit sales growth over the past three quarters, and analysts expect its revenue to rise 14% this year. Apple’s earnings are also expected to climb 24% this year.

Those are remarkable growth figures for a stock that trades at less than 16 times this year’s earnings. Moreover, Apple pays a forward dividend yield of 1.4%, and it has hiked that payout annually for five straight years. It also recently announced a new $100 billion buyback — which is enough to repurchase over 10% of its outstanding shares at current prices.

Apple still depends heavily on the iPhone, which generated 62% of its sales last quarter. But its services revenue — from Apple Pay, Apple Music, iTunes, its App Store, and other services — also jumped 31% annually during the quarter and accounted for 15% of its top line. Apple also stated that its paid subscriber base grew by 100 million in the last year to 270 million.

IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.

That massive user base gives Apple the foundation to launch a wide variety of new services for adjacent markets — like streaming video, online news, and healthcare — to lock in users and reduce its dependence on hardware sales. That’s an advantage none of its smartphone rivals can match.

As I’ve said before, investors should think of Apple as a consumer goods company instead of a tech one. By comparing Apple’s valuations to other consumer goods companies, it’s easy to see how undervalued this stellar growth stock is.

Top Bank Stocks To Watch Right Now: Kinross Gold Corporation(KGC)

Despite 2018 setting up as the year to acquire gold stocks, no sector is immune from market irrationality. Case in point is Kinross Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:KGC). Just recently, KGC stock absorbed a painful body blow thanks to the White House imposing new Russian sanctions. Kinross will receive 20% of its precious metals production from Russia.

On surface level, KGC volatility appears to make sense. Like every other gold miner, Kinross is fighting back after several frustrating years. It simply can’t afford a 20% production disruption.

However, we shouldn’t forget that KGC is a Canadian company. Yes, Canada has sometimes earned a reputation as the U.S. lackey. However, it’s obvious that Russia’s Vladimir Putin has an issue with American dominance in geopolitical affairs.

Kinross disputes that the fresh sanctions have negatively impacted the company. They report that Russian operations are running as previously scheduled. Of course, they would say that, but I don’t see an upside for the Russians to punish a Canadian miner. Russia’s economy isn’t exactly a shining beacon, and they’ll be hurting themselves unnecessarily.

Thus, I think the extreme selloff in KGC stock is a contrarian opportunity. Furthermore, management has really cleaned out their cost of goods sold, as well as their operating expenses. The end result is a company that is finally profitable.

This latest news is nothing more than irrational drama. Feel free to put KGC in your gold stocks to buy list.